Former Sergeant Posch sentenced

Joshua SeboldStaff Writer7/22/2010Former High Desert State Prison Sergeant Todd Posch was recently sentenced to 30 days of jail time, 300 hours of community service and three years of formal probation.

He will likely spend his 30 days in a non-jail setting such as house arrest because of his background in law enforcement.

Posch pled no contest in April to two counts of filing a false police report.

Posch fabricated two incidents when he reported being assaulted by "Mexican gang members."

District Attorney Jeff Cunan said the sentence also included more than $1,000 in restitution to the family of another prison guard who Posch claimed was the "actual target" of his fabricated attacks.

Posch basically told police the "Mexican gang members" attacked him because they thought he was the other guard.

The other prison guard and his family endured months of stress and the invasiveness of security measures such as having armed men posted outside their house because of the tall tale.

The restitution portion of Posch's sentence was continued until Thursday, Aug. 12, at 1:30 p.m.

Cunan and Judge Ira Kaufman have been researching the extent to which restitution can be assigned to pay back public agencies like the state for the aforementioned security guard and Plumas County Sheriff's Office for investigative work.

The DA said he was arguing that more than $100,000 in restitution should be added to the sentence to pay for those expenses.